More important would be to offer a server black list in "the cloud". Then there should also be a way for community groups and members to share or publish there favorite/black lists (in the name of serving the community of course). Also, are you suggesting that every time a server has an ip change the server op would have to update their registration info? Who will development and maintain this handy little piece of tech? Who will be maintaining this cloud database, would Valve have to hire DBA's to handle all this new data and where is the hardware for these DB servers going to come from? With potentially millions of clients each having a "cloud" favorites and blacklist wouldn't this "query/change" become burdensome and at the mercy of the server ops' whim of changing server ip and other information? Sounds like a not well thought out suggestion. Let us also NOT forget that we "left out" the "custom map servers" issues. From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 18:11:24 -0400 Subject: Re: [hlds] Problems caused by connecting server favorites to IP address
The change asked for in that thread would be good, but using the server registration would (IMHO) be much simpler. Heck, they could simply make an announcement that server registration will now be required for ALL servers (we don't bother with our custom map servers at the moment), implement a change that stores client favorites in the steam cloud, then run a database query/change that links the server in the favorites to the registration info instead of IP addess. Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 17:58:31 -0400 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [hlds] Problems caused by connecting server favorites to IP address http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2756854 On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 5:41 PM, Jason Tango <[email protected]> wrote: I would definitely be curious to know how many server operators have decided against upgrading their hardware (which would be better for the overall game's userbase in the long run) for this very reason. Is it simply the difficulty of implementation? Or is Valve so close to releasing Source 2 (that may already have this implemented) that they think it's a waste of time? All I DO know is that I would have to recommend against changing IP's to anyone that doesn't absolutely have to. It's a disaster to your traffic. Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 14:33:59 -0700 From: [email protected] To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [hlds] Problems caused by connecting server favorites to IP address I said this a month ago and I explained why it would be much easier and better for Valve to implement DNS instead of tying it to the server registration system. When people upgrade you usually change hosts because the old ones have gone bad so you cannot keep IPs. My experience with most hosts is that they may let you upgrade your server, but they will not fix their network providers, add ddos protection, or reduce your costs so you stop paying $200/month because that was the standard price 4 years ago. I think what we need to do in order to get this implemented is to understand why Valve has ignored this request for so long. This isn't rocket science or as difficult as implementing Source3, so the problem must be because Valve doesn't think this will improve anything. On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 2:23 PM, Mart-Jan Reeuwijk <[email protected]> wrote: The only way to truly "move" is keeping the old servers for a while, and point those to the new servers so they can connect and favorite them. having a turnover time without paralel, would give no incentive to the players to add those IP's. I do agree a solution would really be nice to keep your playerbase of a server. I even proposed various workings for that (via steam group memberships to have a specific tab / option to show them in favs). But its been on deaf ears for years now. Also, I never hear anybody about having a chat with the hoster / datacenter to move the IP's to the new machines. From: Jason Tango <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, 26 September 2013, 22:11 Subject: [hlds] Problems caused by connecting server favorites to IP address Hello, I know this has been brought up many, many times....but it would seem that with the maturity of the server registration system that Valve is now in a perfect position to fix this issue which both negatively impacts long-established servers, AND prevents server operators from moving to better/improved hardware. I'm talking about the way server favorites work in the server browser. Specifically, the fact that if - for any reason - a server operator needs to change their server's IP address, it disappears from all the users clients who have added it to their favorites over the years. That may not seem like a big deal, but it absolutely IS. It takes months and years to build up a strong base of server regulars, and that base is virtually destroyed if you change that server's IP address. For example....we recently had the opportunity to acquire hardware at a significant discount at another server provider that was a significant upgrade from our current hardware (from a Q9400 to a E3-1270v3 with a samsung Pro SSD) for the same price we were currently paying per month. Wanting to give our players the best possible experience, so we decided to make the move. To prepare, we ran a message for 30 days on the current servers informing the players the servers were moving (and the new address). After that 30 day period, we flipped the switch, and shutdown the old server, bringing the new ones online (the 1270v3 is ridiculously powerful, BTW). Now, these are servers which had previously stayed full for 18+ hours per day on a regular basis, with a 24-hour average population (according to HlStats) of 21 players. After the first 30 days, the 24-hour average is now down to 6 players, and they only fill up roughly 4-6 hours per day. And therein lies the problem. We did (we believe) what was absolutely the right thing in that we chose to upgrade our hardware solely for the purpose of giving our players a better, smoother, more state of the art gaming experience. The server runs wonderfully (3 full servers uses less than 7% CPU!), and the players who ARE playing on them regularly comment on the improvement to frame rate, stability, and map load times. The only thing on our end that changed as far as server configuration was the IP - and it has essentially KILLED the traffic to those servers, forcing us to basically start over from scratch trying to build our server traffic back up (and no, we don't run any of those atrocious MOTD ads or anything - our servers are supported by donations only). The fix, it would seem, would be relatively easy. Why not tie the server favorites to the server registration information instead? Connecting the favorites to IP address does nothing but prevent server operators from upgrading/moving to better equipment and/or datacenters, and severely limits the options we have to improve the gaming environments for our players. I, for one, won't be upgrading/moving anything else if it means I have to change IP addresses. It's simply not worth the traffic loss you incur as a result. Please make this a priority, Valve. The time has come. Thanks. _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
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